/m/sabermetrics

Reader Comments and Retorts

Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.

I feel so young and stupid for having been really, really hesitant to accept Len and Bob in 2005 following the departure of Chip Carray and Steve Stone. Len has been excellent and one of the few reasons to stay tuned into Cubs baseball the last few seasons.

WAR - to me anyway (and for all its warts) - isn't a very useful number for purposes of game watching. Whatever its usefulness (and shortcomings), if someone is looking to 'enhance' their game watching experience through advanced metrics, WAR doesn't really help. Its use is more in the season-to-season analysis and player valuation - I think it's pretty useless on the context of a single game.

For a broadcast trying to expose more advanced numbers to people, I think virtually everything beats WAR...

WCUtB, what do you think of JD taking over for Brenly this year? I was worried with Brenly leaving, but I think the new team is terrific.

I was not like you after 2004. I never thought Caray was a good fit. It seemed as if he was hired as a favor to Harry, and he spent 7 years trying to show us that he only took the job as a favor to Harry. His contempt for the Cubs organization was never well-hidden. Shame that both sides just came together as a favor to Harry, and Harry died before they had a chance to work together. Also, by 2004 Steve Stone as a broadcaster had lost his proverbial fastball big-time. I don't watch enough White Sox games to know if he got it back, but if he can work all these year with Harrelson without throwing himself out of the booth, I guess that's something.

Also, by 2004 Steve Stone as a broadcaster had lost his proverbial fastball big-time. I don't watch enough White Sox games to know if he got it back, but if he can work all these year with Harrelson without throwing himself out of the booth, I guess that's something.

I like broadcasters and analysts to be curious about what they're watching (see Ron Darling on Hector Santiago), and that's not exactly a trait of Harrelson. The close-mindedness becomes exacerbated when every game is the same, because it further rounds down his field of applicable prejudgments and truisms.

I get the feeling Steve Stone feels the same way, mainly because of how energized he sounded when calling the two games with Tom Paciorek. He's sitting on a lot of knowledge of the league and its current events, but it seldom leads to interesting discourse with the regular arrangement. If he introduces a topic, it's often shoved hamfistedly through the Hawk prism of preexisting conclusions, or it's ignored. And Hawk doesn't ask for Stone's opinion as much as he leads the witness.

When Stone got a chance to take the lead and had a broadcasting veteran who could carry his half of a lively conversation (Paciorek; no offense to Mike Huff), the range of topics opened up, and I spent the broadcast listening intently instead of reflexively completing sentences.

That's more about Hawk than Stone, but it sounds like Stone can't get a fastball going with Hawk.

WCUtB, what do you think of JD taking over for Brenly this year? I was worried with Brenly leaving, but I think the new team is terrific.

That's pretty much how I feel. It's a lot more tag-team than PBP-colour, but they're both really smart guys, JD has some fascinating insights, both as an analyst and as a former player, and they're one of the main reasons I like to the TV broadcast running the background.

I never thought Caray was a good fit. It seemed as if he was hired as a favor to Harry, and he spent 7 years trying to show us that he only took the job as a favor to Harry. His contempt for the Cubs organization was never well-hidden. Shame that both sides just came together as a favor to Harry, and Harry died before they had a chance to work together.

While he did overlap a little wth Skip, Chip hasn't improved in moving to Atlanta. He seems to make it clear that he'd rather be anywhere other than the ballpark. And when paired with Joe Simpson - who has never seen a batter pull a ball successfully -- it makes me long for Skip and Pete Van Weiren.

Increasingly, I get the sense that Chip really doesn't want to be doing what he's doing... at least, not primarily doing baseball. More and more he sounds like a guy who went into the 'family business', and is regretting that choice.

Even his meager attempts at pretending to be the goofy dork fall flat.

WCUtB, what do you think of JD taking over for Brenly this year? I was worried with Brenly leaving, but I think the new team is terrific.

Same. I haven't seen a ton of games, since WGN is my only outlet for Cubs baseball. In the same sampling I've heard, though, JD seems to mesh well with Len, both in terms of sabermetrics and sense of humor. Brenly improved a lot during his time in the booth, but he always seemed to be humoring Len's stat talk, whereas JD seems to genuinely share a similar viewpoint. And JD's got a dry sense of humor that complements Len's.

I was not like you after 2004. I never thought Caray was a good fit. It seemed as if he was hired as a favor to Harry, and he spent 7 years trying to show us that he only took the job as a favor to Harry. His contempt for the Cubs organization was never well-hidden. Shame that both sides just came together as a favor to Harry, and Harry died before they had a chance to work together. Also, by 2004 Steve Stone as a broadcaster had lost his proverbial fastball big-time. I don't watch enough White Sox games to know if he got it back, but if he can work all these year with Harrelson without throwing himself out of the booth, I guess that's something.

My dismay was more about losing Stoney than it was about Caray moving on. I was totally on the "they drove them out of town" side, so I was naturally resistant to their replacements. But as I said, Len and Bob turned out to be a great team, especially as the seasons went on, whereas Chip continued to be trite and Stone sunk deeper into the bitter, scorned old man role.

Another factor in being dismayed at losing Stone and Caray is that there are an awful lot of terrible announcers and PBP guys. Chances were that they were going to hire people worse than Stone and Caray. Thankfully, Kasper has been great, Brenley turned into a pretty good color guy, and JD has been terrific so far.